


it was always you

by JacksonCalico



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25340053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacksonCalico/pseuds/JacksonCalico
Summary: Almost everyone in the world had a soulmate.And for every soulmate bond, there was a mark.An identical mark, on the same part of their body, a sign of their joined souls intertwined together and permanently marred on their bodies.A mark was special, precious, something that a lot of people bore and protected with utmost care.Or at least, that was what Blake had been told as a child.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 297





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> remember when i wrote part of this for bumbleby week
> 
> yeah me neither

Almost everyone in the world had a soulmate.

And for every soulmate bond, there was a mark.

An identical mark, on the same part of their body, a sign of their joined souls intertwined together and permanently marred on their bodies. 

A mark was special, precious, something that a lot of people bore and protected with utmost care.

Or at least, that was what Blake had been told as a child. 

Her teen years would be plagued with doubt, about the truth of soulmates and what they meant, about the reality of someone out there bearing a mark just like her own.

About whether or not she was even worthy of having a soulmate, after everything she had done.

All that she knew was that the mark on her left hip was her own, shared only by one other person in the world.

Her missing piece, her other half.

Her soulmate.

\--

_"Soulmates are special."_ Her mother had told her one day, when she was barely four years old and had asked about the intricate mark on her body. _"They can be your most treasured friend or your most dearly beloved."_

_"How will I know when I find them?"_ She had asked, fidgeting with her shirt and poking at the mark on her hip.

_"They'll have the same mark as you, but marks are precious and not very easily shown."_ Her mother went on to explain, fixing Blake's shirt so it hid her soulmark. _"When someone shows you their mark, it means they trust you. Never destroy that trust, Blake."_

Blake had only ever seen her parents' marks before she joined the White Fang, a large panther splayed out on a belladonna flower, asleep and carefree. 

_"Sometimes marks can be literal."_ Kali had told her, fingers rubbing at the beautiful mark on her wrist. " _You just never know how literal they can be until you meet your soulmate."_

Her parents' marks made sense. A panther on a belladonna, for a panther faunus and a woman with the last name Belladonna. 

But Blake didn't understand if her mark had any literal meaning, not one she could easily figure out anyway. 

A panther and a dragon, splayed out together like a yin yang symbol on her hip, curled up together in peaceful harmony.

It would make more sense, when she would meet her soulmate years later. 

But for now, all it did was leave her curious about who the other half of her soul was, and what they were like.

\--

When Blake ran away to join the White Fang at the ripe old age of twelve, she learned that soulmarks were not held at such an importance as her parents' said they ought to be.

Or at least, not to Adam.

Adam had told her that soulmarks meant _nothing._

He said that they were pointless, useless, held nothing of gain or value to anyone or anything.

And for a while, she believed him, because what else was she supposed to do? She was young and he was more experienced when it came to the world around them. It had made sense to trust him

She was reminded of his words every time she saw his face, saw the brand across his eye, _the brand across his mark._

She listened to him, for years she listened to him.

Later, she would wish that she never met him at all.

\--

Yang didn't know how to feel about the mark on her bicep.

Her family had a troubled history with soulmarks. Her father was a rarity, a man born with two marks instead of one, but Yang rarely ever saw either of them anymore.

He had always hidden one of them away from her, the one belonging to her biological mother, a singular raven feather on his right shoulder that he never showed anyone.

He started to hide Summer's mark after she passed away, and it had been so long since Yang last saw it that she couldn't even remember what it was. 

Her Uncle Qrow never spoke about his mark, and Yang had never seen it before either, had never wanted to ask for fear of upsetting him like her father always was when she did.

Yang always wondered why her mother left, why Raven decided that she couldn't stick around long enough to see her own daughter grow up.

Tai wouldn't talk about it, Qrow refused to talk about it, and there were days where she felt like she would never learn anything about the mysterious woman that had given birth to her and left her behind.

Soulmates and soulmarks were a troubled subject in her childhood home, so the only mark Yang knew growing up was her own.

A dragon and a panther in the shape of a yin yang symbol on her bicep, splayed out together across her skin in a way that was oddly comforting.

Her only connection to someone the universe had made for her.

The only person in the world that Yang hoped wouldn't leave her behind.

\--

Yang had to be the one to teach Ruby about soulmates.

_"What's that on your arm?"_ Ruby had asked her, barely seven years old and curious about the world.

_"It's my soulmate mark."_ Yang had told her cautiously, knowing what would come next. _"It's how I can find my soulmate."_

_"Do I have one?"_ Ruby said lifting up her arms and checking over her markless skin, searching for something she wouldn't be able to find.

Ruby, just like her father, was a rarity when it came to soulmarks, but in a completely different way.

Ruby had been born without a soulmark. 

There was a chance one would appear later in life, when she met someone special and the universe decided to give her one as a symbol of the relationship she would have with that person. 

A rarity, to be born without a mark, but Ruby didn't seem to mind when Yang told her as much. 

\--

When Blake is seventeen, she finally leaves the White Fang and Adam for good.

She's all alone, but for the first time in years, she's free. 

She presses her palm against her hip, fingers soothing over her mark, tracing the outline of it through her shirt. 

It brought her comfort, to know that it was still there, that there was someone out there in the world for her. 

But then she would remember everything Adam had said to her, about soulmates, about _herself._

Soulmates were useless, there was no point to them. They meant nothing.

_She_ was useless. 

_She_ meant nothing.

And with nowhere to go and nothing to do, Blake turns to Beacon Academy as her saving grace.

\--

That first night at Beacon Academy, in an empty ballroom surrounded by dozens of fellow students her age, Blake just wishes everyone would be quiet.

She's bound her ears in a bow before, as a way to fit in amongst humans when she was working with the White Fang, but even through the bow, the sound in the ballroom was loud, distractingly so.

Blake's attention is torn away from her book at the sound of footsteps approaching her, and when she looks up, there's a pretty blonde and a younger girl standing before her.

"Hello! I believe you two may know each other." The blonde said, nudging the younger girl next to her.

"Aren't you....that girl that exploded?" Blake said, looking the young girl up and down. She had blown up part of the courtyard earlier that morning during an altercation with a Schnee

She seemed awfully young to be attending a huntsman academy...

"Uh yeah, my name's Ruby." The girl, Ruby, reached a hand out for Blake to shake. She doesn't take it. "But you can just call me crater...yeah actually you can just call me Ruby."

"Okay....."

The blonde leaned into Ruby's side. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know, help me." Ruby said quietly, shifting nervously on her feet.

"So....what's your name?" The blonde asked with a bright smile that leaves Blake momentarily dazed from the sheer cheerfulness of it.

"Blake." She tells them without much thought, fingers tensing slightly over the leather cover of her book.

"Well Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister......" Yang trailed off, looking Blake up and down. "I like your bow."

"Thanks."

"It goes great with your....pajamas." Blake felt the urge to smile as Yang fumbled with her words. 

Her skin felt oddly warm. She blames it on the temperature of the room.

"Nice night, don't you think?" Yang says, absentmindedly rubbing at an orange bandana wrapped securely around her right bicep, and then Blake suddenly feels the uncontrollable urge to touch her soulmark.

"Yes, it's lovely. Almost as lovely as this book....that I will continue to read.....as soon as you leave." Blake's fingers twitched around her book again, her soulmark oddly warm on her skin, and she had to stop herself from letting a hand drift down to her hip.

And when Yang and Ruby leave a couple of minutes later, chased away by an aggravated Weiss Schnee, the odd feeling in her soulmark leaves with them. 

She goes to sleep with her hand curled over her hip, over her soulmark, fingers skimming over her skin, searching for that strange feeling she felt earlier.

She doesn’t find it.

\--

All throughout the next morning, Yang is thinking about her soulmark. 

She knows she should be focusing on initiation, about _literally being thrown off a cliff into a Grimm infested forest,_ but she can't shake the feeling that something had happened yesterday and she missed it. 

Something about her soulmark, about the strange warm feeling she felt last night when talking to that one girl with the book.

But she doesn't have much time to think about it, because she's trekking through Grimm infested woods and the first person she makes eye contact with will be her partner for the next four years. She had to focus or she's a goner.

The sister inside her wants to find Ruby, to make sure she's okay, to continue to look after her sister even as they learn to become huntresses, but she knows she can't do that.

Ruby needs time to grow on her own, without Yang constantly looking after her. 

So it's all up to fate now, and fate just so happens to decide to lead her to the girl from the previous night. 

"I could have taken him."

Blake just smirks at her, her weapon in hand, a dead Ursa at her feet, stance confident and powerful.

And if Yang feels a twinge in her soulmark, she chooses to ignore it. 

For now, at least.

\--

Yang doesn't think about soulmarks again till her and her newly formed team are getting ready for bed in their dorm room.

They're all silent, but that's a given thanks to everything they had endured that day, and Yang is half asleep on her feet as she goes through the process of changing into her pajamas.

There's an unspoken rule that soulmarks are private and shouldn't be shown to strangers, and Ruby's new partner, Weiss Schnee, seemed to be a loyal follower of that unspoken rule.

Sometimes it's obvious to see where someone's soulmark is. A glove on one hand but not the other, bandanas tied around a forearm or bicep, carefully wrapped and secured scarves.

Years ago, soulmark patches had been produced to help some people hide their marks. Square, white cloth similar to a band aid that could be stuck to the skin to cover up soulmarks. 

Quick, easy, effective, and expensive as hell.

But seeing as Weiss was a Schnee, heir to one of the largest corporations on Remnant, it wasn't very hard for her to acquire these patches. 

Weiss's mark was on her collarbone, a clean, square patch of cloth easily standing out on her skin, hiding her soulmark from the world.

She seemed wary about showing her mark to a group of practical strangers, and every so often Yang could see her lifting her hand and pressing it over her collarbone to make sure that the patch was still there.

And Yang finds herself doing something very similar with her own mark, pausing while she's getting changed to check that the bandana on her bicep is secure, still covering up the most vulnerable part of herself.

Blake had disappeared into the bathroom to get changed, and when she returns, Yang feels that strange twinge in her soulmark again, manifesting in the sudden urge to remove the bandana and reveal her mark.

But Yang chalks the odd feeling up to exhaustion and falls into bed without a second glance at her partner or the rest of her teammates. 

It was an unspoken rule to hide your mark.

So why was Yang feeling so tempted to show her's to Blake?"

\--

A couple of weeks after team RWBY is formed, Blake runs after they find out she's a faunus, and it reawakens Yang's greatest fear. 

_Abandonment._

Blake had left, disappeared into the night without a trace, and each waking moment that they don't find her consumes Yang with that fear. 

That fear that Blake will never come back, that she won't find her, _that Blake left her behind._

When they find her after hours of searching, it's one of the biggest reliefs Yang's ever felt. 

And when Yang sees Blake again, standing there with Ruby and Penny and a monkey faunus whose name she later learns is Sun, she feels that subtle warmth in her soulmark that only appears when her partner is near. 

She once again fails to put the pieces together, that maybe there's a connection between her soulmark and Blake.

Because there is a connection, a very strong one.

She just doesn't realize yet.

\--

"Whatcha doing?"

"Studying?"

Yang plopped down on the chair beside Blake, sighing heavily. "Ugh, boring."

"This is the library, Yang." Blake shook her head and smiled. "What else did you expect me to be doing in here?"

"I don't know," Yang shrugged, leaning forward against the table. "Something not boring?"

"You do know we have a test tomorrow, right?" Blake said, turning a page in her textbook and looking up at her partner when she didn't respond.

"...we have a test?"

"Yang," Blake held back a smile at the slightly panicked look on Yang's face. "I literally watched you write the date down in your notebook last week. Oobleck's been telling us about it all week."

Yang hurriedly opened her bag and opened her notebook, rapidly flipping through the pages before setting it down with a groan. "Dammit."

"I can't believe you forgot." Blake let out a little laugh at her partner's expense. "This is literally our biggest test of the semester for Oobleck."

"Shut up and let me fail in peace."

"Do you want to study with me?"

"....yes please."

\--

Their peace and quiet is ruined when Weiss joins them a couple of minutes later, muttering under her breath about dates and war generals as she sits down across from Yang and pulls out her notes.

"Hey Weiss." Yang greeted with a smile, and Weiss barely spared them a second glance as she continued to pull her things out of her bag.

"Good afternoon, Blake, Yang."

"Where's Ruby?"

"She said something about asking team JNPR if they wanted to come join us." Weiss sighed and started shuffling through her papers. "I swear Oobleck is trying to kill us with this test."

"Oh it's not that bad Weiss, the test is only worth half our grade and if we fail it we fail the entire semester." Yang said nonchalantly, writing something down in her notebook. "Y'know, nothing to worry about."

Ruby took that moment to dash over to their table and slam her bag down on it. "So I have good news and bad news."

"What's the good news?"

"The good news is that Pyrrha and Ren said they would come help us." Ruby said, gesturing behind herself as team JNPR slowly made their way over to the table. "The bad news is that I'm going to fail this test either way."

"You're not going to fail, Ruby."

"I'm going to fail."

\--

They all miraculously pass the test, but only just barely in some cases. 

"I'm never taking another test again." Ruby groaned, flopping down onto Weiss's bed, her C+ test grasped tightly in one hand. "That was awful."

"Oh it wasn't that bad."

Ruby lifted her head up from Weiss's pillow to glare at her sister. "Shut up and let me wallow in my own self pity."

"Whatever you say, sis." Yang rolled her eyes and gave Blake a bright smile. "How'd you do, partner?"

"B+," Blake dropped her bag onto her bed and sat down. "I got a couple of questions on Mistral wrong."

Yang settled down next to her, leaning into her side and yawning slightly. "Why does Oobleck always make his questions so difficult?"

"I have a feeling he just likes to watch us struggle." Blake said, fingers twitching with the urge to touch her mark as a sudden spike of heat ran through it. "How did you do anyway?"

"I got an A+." Yang said, holding up her near perfect test for Blake to see. "Got one of the same questions wrong as you did."

"Of course you got an A, it's not like you only started studying yesterday."

"What can I say, I'm a natural born genius."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Yang."

\--

When Blake slowly starts to destroy herself over Torchwick and the White Fang, Yang is the one who convinces her to slow down a little bit.

She pulls Blake into an empty classroom the day before the Vytal Festival dance, sits her down, and tells her a story. 

A story about wanting answers, about a young girl seeking for the smallest hint of knowledge about someone who had long ago removed themself from her life. 

A story about how that need for answers almost got her and sister killed.

The story of a little girl searching for some form of understanding about the mother that abandoned her.

“I'm not telling you to stop. I haven't.” Yang said quietly, her back to Blake, hands tightly gripping the tray of the chalkboard. “To this day I still want to know what happened to my mother and why she left me, but I will never let that search control me."

"We're going to find the answers we're looking for, Blake. But if we destroy ourselves in the process, then what good are we?"

"You don't understand!" Blake says to her, hands curled up into fists at her side. "I'm the only one who can do this!"

Yang finally turns around to face her, and the first thing Blake notices is the red in her eyes and the frown on her face.

"No, you don't understand!" Yang lifts a hand and vaguely gestures behind Blake at the classroom door. “If Roman Torchwick walked through that door, what would you do?"

"I'd fight him!"

"You'd lose!" Yang shoves Blake lightly, and there's no force behind her movement, but it still manages to make Blake stumble back against the teacher's desk.

"I can stop him!" Blake regains her footing and pushes uselessly against Yang's shoulder. She's too weak to put any strength into it, and Yang doesn't even budge.

"You can't even stop me." Yang's voice breaks when she gives Blake another gentle shove Back against the desk.

And then she's wrapping her arms around her in a hug and all Blake can process in that moment is warmth and the overpowering sense of home.

That strange feeling in her soulmark is back and stronger than ever before, pulsing against her hip with a sense of urgency.

"I'm not asking you to stop, just please... get some rest." Yang whispers in her ear, arms tightening around her. 

Yang pulls away to look at her, eyes gentle and sad. "Not just for you, but for the people you care about."

And then Yang lets go of her and starts to leave as Blake's mark burns and begs for the blonde to return and hold her again.

"And if you feel like coming out tomorrow," Yang pauses at the bottom of the staircase and turns to wink at Blake, sending another jolt of warmth shooting through her. "I'll save you a dance."

Blake barely notices the sound of the classroom door closing behind her partner, hand pressing over her mark as her heart beats hard and fast in her chest, overwhelmed by the heat in her body and the emotions rushing through her.

She can't comprehend the feeling in her mark, not when she's so exhausted and practically asleep where she stands. 

_'Later._ ' Blake tells herself as she unsteadily climbs the stairs several minutes after Yang had left the classroom. 

Her mark was a problem for another day, when she wasn't so tired and her fears Torchwick and the White Fang weren't consuming her life. 

One day, she would be able to think about Yang and her mark.

But that day wouldn't come for a very long time.

\--

Blake does end up going to the dance, and the dance she shares with Yang is something she will never forget.

Maybe it was the way Yang held her that made it so memorable, with firm but gentle hands that twirled her around the dance floor, with a bright smile and a joyful laugh.

Maybe it was the way the warm feeling in her mark had somehow crawled its way into her chest, making her heart beat fast and her cheeks flush with every gentle touch and soft look they shared. 

Maybe it was because deep down, she knew Yang was different, different from every other person she had met, different from every person she had ever cared about before.

Yang was special to her, despite everything her mind was desperately trying to tell her. 

She knew she had to cut this off now, stop whatever was happening between them before her past caught up with her and destroyed it, but she couldn't.

Her brain screamed at her to stop, but her heart and soul refused with a voice louder than anything her mind could muster. 

But she can't think about her troubled past and her feelings any longer, because Yang's guiding her into one final spin, and all she can comprehend is the blonde's smile before she's being passed off to Sun.

That warm feeling leaves with Yang, like it always does, but this time Blake misses it more than she ever has before.

\--

"Hey Blake?"

Blake's pencil stilled against her paper, and she glanced over at her leader. "Yes Ruby?"

"Are you… drawing my sister?"

Blake's eyes shot down to her notebook and sure enough, littered across the paper, were dozens of doodles of Yang.

"So it seems I am."

Ruby teasingly smirked and leaned into her side. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"No…"

Ruby opened her mouth to say something else but was abruptly elbowed in the side by Weiss. 

"Do I need to remind you two that we are _in the middle of class?"_ Weiss hissed at them, a curious Yang peaking over the heiress's shoulder.

Ruby mumbled an apology and turned to face the front of the room. Yang caught Blake's eye from over their short teammates' heads and winked at her with a grin.

Blake had long since started to get used to the gentle warmth that would ignite in her soulmark, so when it happens again at the sight of Yang's smile, she ignores it.

\--

The next day, Weiss storms into the dorm room after a phone call with her father and collapses on her bed with a loud groan.

"Everything okay?" Yang asked from Blake's bunk, and Blake looked up from the book she was reading beside her.

Weiss was quiet and still for a long moment before she shook her head, and Blake shut her book as Yang reached behind them and threw a spare pillow up at Ruby's bunk.

Ruby slipped her headphones off as the pillow collided with her bed, and she peered down at them from beneath her blankets. "What?"

Blake pointed at the bunk below as Yang responded. "Weiss needs us."

Ruby immediately swung her legs over the side of her bed and dropped down onto the floor to sit beside her partner. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Weiss turned over and sat up. "Father was just… being himself I guess."

"So he was being a dick?"

Weiss smiled at Yang's response and sighed. "That's one way to put it."

Weiss lifted a hand and pressed it against the white piece of cloth on her collarbone, and then her fingers hesitantly found the edge and she peeled it off to reveal the mark underneath, a chameleon curled up around a snowflake.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked curiously, leaning closer to get a better look at Weiss's mark.

"Rebelling."

Blake snorted and raised a hand up to her mouth to hide her smile. "You call this rebelling?"

Weiss glared at her. "Sorry, not all of us are ex-criminals, Blake."

"Touche."

"So what's this going to accomplish?" Yang asked, laying back on Blake's bed. "Is it going to piss him off?"

"Oh yes, he'll be livid." Weiss said triumphantly, fingers brushing over her mark with a smile.

"Is that your goal?"

"Yes."

And so Weiss never covered her mark with a patch again.

\--

"Where's your soulmark?" Yang asked Blake later that night while Ruby and Weiss were asleep.

"Hip." Blake whispers without hesitation, rubbing her mark through her shirt. 

Yang's normally happy smile falters for a small moment, and when it returns, it's sadder than before. 

"Arm." Yang says back to her, tapping the bandana on her bicep. "Though I think it's kind of obvious you already knew that."

"Gee, I wonder why."

"Ok, no need to be a smartass."

"But I like being a smartass."

"Blake I swear to-"

"Shut up and go to bed!"

"Sorry Weiss…"

\--

A couple of days before the start of the Vytal Festival, Blake sees a soulmark on Ruby's arm.

Or at least, she thinks it's a soulmark, a faded spot on the outside of her leader's forearm, nothing more than a misshapen blob of red and grey. 

But that can't be right, Ruby was born without a soulmark, and Blake doesn't recall ever seeing one on her arm before.

"Hey Ruby," Blake speaks up after a moment, squinting at the younger girl from her bed. "What's that on your arm?"

"What?" Ruby dropped the comic she was reading into her lap and raised her arms. "Where?"

"On your left forearm, I thought I saw something."

Ruby turned her left arm, fingers brushing over the faint mark on her arm, jolting slightly when she applied pressure. "Weird…"

"What do you think it is?"

"It's probably just a bruise or something." Ruby muttered, rubbing the mark nervously. "Me and Penny bumped into each other pretty hard the other day."

And Blake shrugs and accepts that as the answer, that it's just an oddly colored bruise and nothing more, despite knowing exactly what bruises look like and how that mark doesn't fit the criteria.

But then Ruby hides it from Yang and Weiss when they get ready for bed that night, sending Blake a pleading look, silently asking to keep it between the two of them.

So Blake doesn't say a word about it, just smiles softly at her leader and continues getting ready for bed.

Whatever that mark is, it's important to Ruby, and if Ruby wants to keep it a secret, then so be it.

\--

Then the Vytal Festival happens, and the screaming in Blake's mind inevitably becomes too loud for her heart and soul to drown out.

_Yang hurt Mercury._

It's on repeat in her head, constant and unwavering. 

_Yang hurt someone._

She can't ignore it, can't ignore the fear rising in her chest. 

_Yang hurt a defenseless person._

The situation is too familiar for her to bear, so much like something he would have done, and she can't stop the fear rising in her chest no matter how hard she tries.

Yang was so different from him in so many ways, but the logic her heart tries to supply to her fear stricken brain isn't enough. 

She can't deny what her eyes saw, even when her soul tells her that it wasn't what happened, that it _couldn't_ have been what happened. 

And Yang insists as such, that Mercury has attacked her first, and Blake's heart begs for her to believe it, and she wants to, she wants to believe Yang.

But then her brain supplies her with memories of Adam, and every single time he had told her that it was an accident, that he didn't mean it. 

She wants to believe Yang, but doesn't know if she can. She's been tricked by the people she was close to before, and she had promised herself that she would never let it happen again. 

She doesn't know what to believe, which part of herself to trust, her heart or her mind.

Blake chooses to believe her, even if her past didn't want her too.

Her heart had failed her once before.

She prayed that it wouldn't happen again.

\--

And then the world started to fall apart.

Beacon was being overrun with Grimm, Penny lay destroyed on the floor of Amity Colosseum, and Ruby had long since disappeared and wasn't answering her scroll.

Things were going downhill fast, and it was only going to get worse. 

Blake and Weiss run separate ways at some point, and Blake's worst nightmare comes true.

_Adam_ was there, at Beacon Academy.

Adam Taurus, a man who had hurt her many times before with no remorse. 

Adam Taurus, who she had last seen on the top of a train car, growing smaller and smaller in the distance as she cut that car free and disappeared into the night.

"Hello, my darling."

For years to come, people would say that the beginning of the Fall of Beacon was the moment the finals started.

But for Blake, this was where it all really began to fall apart.

\--

Blake slowly took a step back, heart beating hard and fast in her chest as panic threatened to consume her.

"Running away again?" His cruel voice taunted her. "Is that what you've become my love? A coward?"

"Why are you doing this?" She yelled at him, fingers twitching towards the weapon on her back.

"You and I were going to change the world, remember?" He yells back, fingers curling around the hilt of his sword. "We were destined to light the fires of revolution."

Adam brought his foot down harshly upon the abdomen of a fallen student, unsheathing Wilt. "Consider this the spark."

His words are followed by the sound of blades clashing as Blake launches herself at him.

"I'm not running." She growls, grip tightening around Gambol Shroud.

"You will." He applies more pressure against her weapon, before lifting his leg and kicking her hard in the stomach, knocking her to the ground.

"But not before you've suffered for your betrayal, my love."

\--

"Weiss!"

Yang skids to a halt beside her teammate, heart thudding heavily in her chest. "You're okay! Have you heard from Ruby?"

Weiss shook her head, leaning heavily on Myrtenaster, and Yang's chest clenched tightly. 

"What about Blake?" A strange pinprick suddenly alights in her soulmark, elevating her increasing restlessness and stress.

Weiss points vaguely to the left, slowly catching her breath . "She went after an Alpha and some members of the White Fang."

The muscle around her soulmark twitched violently, and she pressed her hand against it in an attempt to soothe the anxiety rising within her.

_'Find Blake.'_ Her soul demanded urgently. _'You need to find Blake.'_

"You look for Ruby, I'll meet up with Blake."

Weiss nodded, giving her a thumbs off, and off Yang went, in search of her missing partner.

That was the last and only time she saw Weiss during the Fall, and it would be months before Yang saw her again.

\--

"This could have been our day, can't you see that?!"

"I never wanted this!” Blake was slow to rise, raising up Gambol Shroud in front of herself. “I wanted equality! I wanted peace!"

She fires two shots at him, but he deflects them easily with Wilt.

"What you want is impossible!" He backhands her hard across the face, and she falls back to the ground, cheek stinging. "But I understand, because all I want is you, Blake."

Blake raises Gambol in an attempt to defend herself, but he kicks the weapon out of her hands, sending it clattering to the ground somewhere behind him.

"And as I set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves," Adam kneels beside her with a cruel sneer, pointing his finger in her face. "I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love."

Blake's heart stills in her chest as a sound reaches her ears, _the sound of someone calling her name,_ and fear completely consumes her as she realizes just _who_ that voice belongs to.

_'No,'_ She wants to scream. _'Anyone but her.'_

"Blake, where are you?!"

Adam looks down, and he must see the fear in her eyes, because he smirks evilly and sets his sights on the person Blake holds dearest to her heart. 

_Yang._

"Starting with her."

And before Blake knows what's happening, Adam's standing up, brandishing Wilt and bringing the sword above his head. He stabs downwards plunging his blade deep into her left hip, and it's not her aura that shatters upon contact, it's her very soul that splinters and breaks into a million little pieces around her.

The scream that is ripped from her throat is completely involuntary, and she almost passes out from the unbearable pain consuming her entire body. 

The pain is so strong, so awful, that she can't move, can't do anything but watch as Yang yells and launches herself at Adam.

"Get away from her!"

"No, please…" Blake begs, struggling to move due to the immense pain in her hip, but it's no use.

Yang was unconscious before she even hit the ground.

\--

What feels like hours later, Blake's being forced to lay down on the airship loading dock as someone hastily attempts to bandage her bleeding hip. 

She weakly slaps the hands away, craning her head around, desperately looking for her partner, but there's too many people around for her to see anything. "Yang…"

"She's going to be fine." A voice tells her, but her eyes continue to search. "Blake…"

"Her first…" Blake says as someone once again tries to tend to her wound. "Please take care of her first…"

"They're taking care of her, Blake." The voice tells her, and is that Sun? "You need someone to dress your wound."

She doesn't have the strength to stop the medic this time, grunting in pain as bandages are finally pressed against her injury. 

"Gods, what happened to you two…."

The moment the medic steps away from her, Blake tries to sit up and struggles, wincing as it puts strain on her damaged hip. "Where is she?"

Sun crouches down beside her, placing a gentle hand against her shoulder in an attempt to guide her back to the ground.

"Please," Blake begs him desperately. "I need to see her. I need to see that she's okay."

Sun hesitates and looks up, glancing around the platform, eyes falling on something a couple of feet away.

He's quiet for a long moment, before and nods and whispers. "Ok…I'll help you over…"

Within a few moments, she's laying by Yang's side, barely aware of the people bustling around her in varying states of distress and panic, focused completely on the emotionless face of her partner in front of her.

She tried not to think about the blood that was slowly starting to leak through the bandage around what was left of Yang's arm, or the fact that the exact same blood could be found staining her clothes, staining her shirt and jacket from the journey away from Adam.

Blake tried not to think about it, and she failed, because every time she shifted, she could feel sharp pain shoot through her body, and every time she would look down and see blood that wasn't hers splotted against her shirt. 

She was barely aware of anything that wasn't the throbbing pain in her hip, and her once bright and happy partner laying limp in front of her.

It's around the time that Port and Oobleck order everyone onto the last airship that Ruby finally appears on the platform, the first anyone had seen of her since she had disappeared from Amity Colosseum. 

She can vaguely hear Ruby talking to Weiss, followed by a sharp gasp from her leader, and Blake can only assume that she had seen what had happened to the rest of her team

Blake ignores Ruby and reaches out to grasp Yang's remaining hand, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

This is her fault.

_It's all her fault._

When she and Yang are finally evacuated to the safe zone in Vale, she forces herself to stand and gives Yang's hand one final squeeze.

"I'm sorry." Blake whispers, stroking the back of Yang's hand before letting go and stepping away. "I'm so sorry."

Blake turns around, and runs away.


	2. Chapter 2

Blake doesn't stop to check her wound until she's miles away from Beacon. 

She's so afraid of what she might find underneath the hastily wrapped bandage, of what lay beneath the bloodied white cloth on her hip.

An open stab wound on her hip, or a brutally maimed soulmark.

She knows deep inside of her that it's the later, knows that her injury is responsible for the agony that's still thrumming deep in her veins.

And when she peels the bandage away from her hip, she cries, because it's _exactly_ where her mark should be. 

That beautiful dragon and panther on her hip is gone, nowhere to be found underneath dried blood and torn flesh.

Her mark had been irreversibly damaged, so much so that there was nothing left. It had disappeared without a trace, leaving behind pure anguish and a feeling of loss so strong she could barely even fathom it.

_It's gone._

She repeats it over and over again in her head until it consumes her thoughts completely, and she knows deep down that she's not only referring to her mark.

_It's all gone._

\--

When Yang wakes up after the Fall, the first thing she notices is the hollow aching in her chest.

It's faint and barely there, but she still feels it, a heaviness in her heart that threatens to explode and consume her the longer she's awake.

The second thing she notices is the sharp and jolting pain in her shoulder and bicep as she shifts on her bed, wondering what happened and where she was.

And then it all comes back to her.

The finals, Penny, the Grimm, the White Fang, Blake, _Blake._

It hits her so hard that she jolts upwards, only to gasp and collapse back against her pillow as the dam breaks and the barely restrained pain in her body releases itself. 

Burning hot pain engulfs her bicep and shoulder, swiftly accompanied by that dull ache in her chest amplifying to an unbearable degree. 

_Blake._

She doesn't want to look down, doesn't want to look down and face the reality her brain knows is true. 

Empty space, from her bicep down, a sacrifice she had made for her partner's safety. 

_Blake._

All she can remember is Blake on the ground with a tall man standing over her, a sword buried deep into her hip, and then a sudden sharp pain followed by nothingness.

_Where's Blake?_

Yang forces herself into a sitting position, gritting her teeth as the pain in her arm reels its ugly head to leer at her cruelly.

_Where's Blake?_

"Yang!" 

The sound of her father's voice calling her name startles Yang out of her thoughts. "Dad?"

"Oh thank goodness you're okay." Taiyang hurries over to her bedside and helps her sit more comfortably against the pillows. She chooses to ignore the way his eyes drift to her right side and the faltering of his hand on her shoulder. 

"How are you feeling?"

"Hurts…" She croaks, voice raw and scratchy from misuse, from yelling after she saw… 

"Where's Blake?"

Tai gives her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Blake, where's Blake?" Fear starts to climb it's way into her chest. "Is she okay?"

And Tai can't give her an answer, and neither can her uncle Qrow, or anyone else for the matter. 

No one knows where Blake is or what happened to her, and the fear and anxiety continues to grow until she finally gets an answer in the form of Sun Wukong. 

"She just… left." He cautiously tells her. "She made sure you were going to be ok and then she just… ran before anyone could stop her."

And her worst fear came true. 

_She's gone._

She'd been left behind yet again by someone she cared about.

_She's gone._

Blake left, disappeared into the night without a word. 

_It's all gone._

Yang doesn't even realize her soulmark is gone until several nights later, when she looks at what remains of her arm and sees that her beautiful panther and dragon is gone. 

Gone, just like Blake. 

The thought alone makes it all hurt all over again.

\--

Or at least, her mark was gone until one day she looked in the mirror after taking a shower and _there it is._

Not where it had been before, no the place it used to reside has long since been gone. 

She lifts her hand to brush over the skin on her chest, over the vibrant mark that now resides, fingers pressing inwards gently.

She half expects it to disappear in the blink of an eye, that she's going to look away and it'll be gone once again. 

But it doesn't, and when she settles her hand completely against, she almost cries in relief when it provides the same comforting feeling it always used to. 

The panther and dragon had returned to her, taken up a new home on her chest directly over her heart. 

The warmth seeping into her veins vaguely reminds her of a simpler time, of time well spent with her friends, with her teammates. 

A time she doubted she'd ever experience ever again. 

Ruby had left weeks ago with Jaune, Nora and Ren, and she hadn't seen or heard from Weiss since her father had taken her back to Atlas the night Beacon fell.

And Blake had _run,_ and Yang didn't know if she ever even wanted to see her again. 

She does, she knows deep down that she does want to see Blake again. Her mark doesn't feel the same, or at least not, it doesn't feel like it used to. 

Not like it did when Blake was by her side. 

She settles for this small victory, the return of her soulmark, one small form of comfort for her that she'd been craving since the night Beacon fell and took her heart with it.

It's a small victory, but it's a victory she's happy to take.

\--

When Blake returned home to Menagerie, there was a part of her that didn't expect her parents to take her back.

It had been five years since she had last seen them, five years since she ran away with the White Fang and Adam, five years since she disappeared in the middle of the night and never looked back.

Five years since she left them without a trace.

It was strange, being back in Menagerie after so many years away, and even stranger so with Sun Wukong at her side. 

She hadn't asked him to come with, or even wanted him to really in the beginning, but then she realized it was kind of nice to have a friend with her. 

Her father didn't appreciate him, and her mother was maybe a little too excited at the prospect of Blake bringing someone home, even if it was just a friend. 

She had never thought her parents would take her back, didn't think she deserved their acceptance after everything she'd done. 

Despite everything, they welcomed her home with open arms, and she couldn't be more grateful.

\--

"What are you looking at?" Blake asked, cringing slightly underneath her mother's calculating gaze. 

"Nothing…" Kali's ears twitched backwards, and she squinted slightly, giving her daughter a closer look. "Has your soulmark always been on your chest?"

Blake froze, her heart stilling in her chest as a cold feeling washed over her "What?"

"I could have sworn it was on your hip." Kali muttered, ears flicking as she studied Blake. "I guess I was wrong."

Blake nodded slowly, heart starting to beat rapidly in her chest as her mother shrugged and turned away from her. 

Blake waited for a moment before turning around and darting into the bathroom down the hall, halting in it to look at herself in the mirror, eyes widening at what she saw.

Shimmers of gold and black peeking out through the cutouts on her crop top, angled in a familiar shape that she never thought she would see again.

Blake slipped her jacket off of her shoulders and hastily yanked her crop top over her head, bracing herself for disappointment that never came.

There was a panther and a dragon, curled up peacefully together on her chest, right over her heart. 

Her hand strayed to her hip, fingers splaying out over the fresh scar on her hip, the place where her mark used to lay. 

_It came back._

She breathed out a shuddering breath, lifting her hand to gently press it over her chest. 

Warmth seeped into her veins, a sense of calm washing over her as she traced the outline of the beautiful golden dragon. 

_It came back._

Her mark had come back, made a new home for itself on her body, returned to her looking just like it had before.

On her chest, right over her heart, in a spot barely visible through the diamond shaped cutouts on her crop top.

_Her mark had come back._

She forces down the sob that rises in her throat, swallowing heavily to hold back barely contained emotions.

She never thought she'd ever see it again, not after Beacon fell, not after everything that happened with _Adam, with Yang._

Blake falls to her knees, hand clutching at her mark, her fingers digging into her skin, and cries. 

_'It's back.'_ Her mind echoes through her quiet cries. _'It's back.'_

Maybe she deserved a little light in her life after all.

\--

The next time Yang willingly lets herself think of Blake, it's when she's preparing to leave for Mistral. 

Back at Beacon, before everything fell apart, Blake had given her a book to read. 

The book that Blake had been reading the night they met, a book that Yang had previously tried to read before back at Beacon and failed to get into. 

Yang spreads her new metal fingers out across the cover, holding the book in both of her hands as she smiles sadly to herself at the old memories it brought.

Memories of sitting in the library with her partner, with their knees barely touching underneath the table as she leaned over the faunus's shoulder to read. 

She had successfully read it a handful of times since Beacon, late at night when she should have been sleeping, propped up against her pillow and enraptured by a world that Blake had previously tried to share with her.

Her soulmark feels heavy against her chest, weighed down by old memories that were painful to recall.

Yang decides to take the book with her to Mistral, but the removal of the book from her sight does little to soothe the aching in her soul. 

She goes to sleep with a hand over her soulmark that night, praying it'll provide the comfort her soul is begging for.

It doesn't.

\--

The aching in Yang's soul doesn't fade even as she's reunited with Weiss and Ruby.

It calms a little when she sees Weiss again, becoming nothing more than a faint twinge in her chest as they hug each other tightly in the middle of her mother's bandit camp.

The relief and joy of knowing that her teammate was okay drowns out the pain in her mark, even if it's just for a small, fleeting moment. 

And when they reunite with Ruby after a less than pleasant talk with Raven, Yang forgets about her soulmark completely.

Three members of team RWBY, finally back together again after months apart. 

_'There's four of you.'_ Her mind unhelpfully reminds her. _'Someone is missing.'_

But maybe it was meant to be this way, just the three of them. If Blake didn't want to be there with them, then so be it. They were just fine on their own.

The thought still hurts, and the uncomfortable twinge in her chest amplifies as it usually does when she thinks about Blake. 

Blake left them, _left her,_ and it hurts more than she's letting the others believe.

They know she's upset about it, but she doubts they know just how much it's really affecting her. 

Blake _left,_ and Yang doesn't know if she'll ever be able to completely recover from it anytime soon.

\--

Ilia had been Blake's only friend when she was in the White Fang. 

Blake hadn’t seen her since she left, and she definitely hadn’t expected to see her in Menagerie, helping the White Fang branch there along with Corsac and Fennec Albain.

It turns out that helping the White Fang included a ploy to kidnap Blake and kill her parents, and in the chaos that follows, Ilia confesses years old feelings she had harbored towards Blake.

And later in the light of a steadily dying fire, Blake sees Ilia's soulmark, and she's reminded of someone she hadn't seen in a very long time.

A chameleon and a snowflake, carefully printed across the faunus's collarbone in a way that was oh so familiar.

Ilia shared her mark with none other than Weiss Schnee, the heiress of the company that had gotten her parents killed.

It hurt to think of Weiss, in the same way it hurt to think about Ruby, about the teammates and friends she had left behind the night Beacon fell.

Blake pressed her fingers against her chest, trying to soothe the rising anguish in her soul. 

"What's wrong?" Sun asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

"Nothing." Blake said, dropping her hand and wring her fingers together. "Just remembering something."

Ilia shifted on her feet and leaned closer to look at Blake, eyes skimming over the flashes of gold underneath her crop top. 

"I thought your soulmark was on your hip." Ilia whispered carefully, her fingers rubbing unconsciously at her own exposed mark. 

Blake swallowed heavily as a small prick of pain crawled its way into her chest. "It was, not anymore."

_Not after what happened at Beacon._

When Blake finally falls asleep that night, her dreams are plagued by a humorless laugh and a sinister grin, taunting her from the darkness. 

It's just another cruel reminder about how much he still haunts her.

\--

The aching in Yang's soulmark is finally soothed at the Battle of Haven.

The adrenaline in her blood from fighting fades into a gentle thrum deep within her veins, breath hitching in her throat as her soul screams in joy at the person standing before her.

Everything around her fades as the world stands still, her soul zeroing in on the center of her universe. 

_"Yang?"_

Even the sound of her voice sends a jolt down Yang's spine, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest, lilac eyes wide and focusing on something she never thought she'd see again.

_Gold._

_Stunning, beautiful, wonderous gold._

_Blake._

"Yang, go!"

Ruby's yell shocks her back to life and into action, has her turning on her heel and racing for the vault.

_Blake's back._

Her marks burns hotly against her chest, but she ignores it. She has a job to do.

_'Get to the vault.'_ Her mind momentarily drowns out the chanting in her soul, and she quickly tries to dodge around Mercury, disengages her prosthetic when he grabs it. _'You have to get to the vault.'_

She can hear the fighting resume as she jumps down into the vault opening, free falling down to the chamber below.

_Blake came back._

_'Focus.'_ She reminds herself as the burning fire in her soul begins to simmer down into a gentle crackling. 

And when the fire finally burns itself out, the faint ache she could normally feel in her chest is nowhere to be found.

\--

Blood pounded in Blake's ears as she cautiously stepped towards her teammates, anxiety rising rapidly in her chest as three pairs of eyes turned to look at her.

"So Blake, what are you doing here?" Ruby tentatively asked, and _gods it was so weird to hear her voice again._

Blake shifted on her feet nervously, fingers curling into the sleeve of her jacket and holding on tightly. "I… I was going to ask you three the same thing."

Ruby sighs and glances between Weiss and Yang with a roll of her eyes. "That's a long story."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere." And Blake means it, gods she hopes they know she means it.

"That's all that matters, that we're all here together, right?"

Ruby and Weiss both turn to look at Yang, and Blake can't raise her head to see her partner's reaction. 

The raw emotions inside of her climb further up into her chest, clawing at her soulmark from beneath her skin, little pinpricks alighting over her heart.

_'She'll never take you back.'_ A voice whispers into her ear, cruel and familiar. _'There's nothing you can do to fix the damage and hurt you've caused.'_

But then Yang starts to slowly nod, and Blake's rising panic slowly starts to ease as warmth seeps into her chest and over her soulmark, as calm and comforting as it has always been.

"Yeah." Yang says quietly, smile soft and gentle. Her and Weiss reach an arm out in Blake's direction, a silent request for a hug. 

Blake falls to her knees next to them, allowing herself to be pulled into a hug, holding back warm tears as a strong arm loops around her back and ignites a fire in her soul.

Weiss squeezes her shoulder, and Ruby shifts forward a little to gently bump their heads together. 

_'Welcome back.'_ Their touches say. _'We missed you.'_

But the arm around her back tells a different story, according to her soul.

_'Welcome home.'_ That touch says, manifesting in the form of a hushed whisper in the back of her mind. _'I hope you stay.'_

_'I'll never leave again.'_ Her soul whispers back, quiet and breathless. _'I promise.'_

And it's enough, for now at least.

She'll have a lot to make up for later, but Blake's here, with her team, and that's all that matters.

She was finally home.

\--

Ilia freezes when she sets eyes on Weiss for the first time, and Blake feels a weird sense of deja vu wash over her.

_'You've been in that position before.'_ Her soul says, only furthering her confusion. _'You were them once.'_

_'What do you mean?'_ She wants to ask, but knows she'll get no answer. It's a useless battle, to question something she'll never be able to completely understand. 

Her mother had told her to listen to her soul, but there was only so much listening she was willing to do when it tried to guide her in a direction she didn't think she had the right to go in.

Maybe once upon a time she did, but not now, not anymore. 

Not after she ran.

So she stood by and watched, as Weiss and Ilia locked eyes for the first time, her heart beating rhythmically under the warmth of her soulmark.

She presses her fingers against her mark, swallowing heavily at the spike of heat it gives off as her gaze slips over to Yang.

She should know what it means by this point, but she doesn't allow herself the chance to figure it out. 

_'You don't deserve a soulmate.'_ Adam's voice growls in her ear, faint in volume but loud and harsh in meaning. _'Not after all the pain you've caused.'_

She tears her eyes away from Yang and swallows back the anguish that rises in her throat as memories of the fall swarm through her head.

_It's her fault._

_It was all her fault._


	3. Chapter 3

It was weird, having Blake back.

Weird, and strange, and awkward, but somehow _right._

Yang has missed that little flutter in her soulmark since Beacon fell all those months ago, but it was weird to have it back.

She had gotten so used to feeling alone. It was odd to have a reminder that she never truly was, that there was someone out there for her.

Yang idly tapped her fingers against her chest, gaze dropping down to the ground below, to her partner standing in the middle of team RWBY's train car.

Blake stretched her arms over her head, ears twitching and long white coat shifting slightly to reveal an x-shaped scar on her left hip.

The hip where she had said her soulmark was.

And suddenly all Yang can think of is red and the sound of her partner screaming in agony. 

"Yang?" A hesitant voice called out to her, pulling her out of dark memories. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

She wasn't, not at all, but that was something she would much rather keep to herself. 

It seems that both her and Blake lost their marks that night. 

Yang was fortunate enough to have her's return, but who knows if Blake was lucky enough to meet the same fate.

Gods, Yang hopes she was.

If Yang were to look up just a little bit, she would be able to see flashes of black and gold peeking out from underneath the cutouts of her crop top, she would have her answer. 

But she doesn't, and now all she's left with is questions instead of the answer standing out starkly on the skin of Blake's chest.

\--

And then the train they’re taking to Argus is attacked by Grimm, and they get separated from JNR and are stranded in the middle of nowhere with a relic of infinite knowledge and a story about the gods and the world they destroyed. 

They’re forced to seek refuge on an abandoned farm when an incoming blizzard threatens to freeze them to death, and it’s there that Yang and Blake finally get to talk about what happened at Beacon, even if it’s only for a little bit.

Blake had volunteered the pair of them to go search the other buildings of the farm for vehicles, and Yang had reluctantly agreed. 

"What do you think happened here?" Yang asked, looking around the shed at the long rows of rusted shelves and tools. 

"There's that well in the square," Blake replied from somewhere behind her. "Maybe water contamination?"

"Yeah, maybe." Yang sighed, pressing the palm of her hand against her head as a wave of exhaustion came over her. 

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yes, I mean no, but, I don't know. I'm just tired."

"Yeah…" Blake doesn't look or sound convinced, but she lets the subject drop.

There's light coming through a window in the back of the shed, and Yang walks away from Blake to investigate.

There's an old, rusted flatbed trailer sitting in the corner by the window. It was just what they were looking for.

But then she glanced up from the trailer and out the window, and sees _red._

The sound of a sword unsheathing, a sinister smile, a sharp and burning ache in her arm.

"What is it?"

Yang blinks and he's gone, and Blake's standing next to her, hand curled around Gambol Shroud and a worried look in her eyes.

"I… I was just seeing things," She muttered, heart sinking and an uncomfortable prickling feeling sparking in her chest. "I'm sorry."

Blake's defensive stance drops as she breathes a sigh of relief, fingers slipping away from Gambol Shroud's hilt. 

"I still get flashes from that night." Yang says, attempting to still the violent shaking in her left hand with her right. "Do you think Adam's still out there?"

"I don't know. If he went back to the White Fang, there would have been serious consequences." Blake shifts on her feet, gripping her forearm tightly. "But he never really liked people telling him what to do."

"Adam's strong, but his real power comes from control. He used to get in my head, make me feel small, but now I see he just wanted to pull me down to his size."

Blake reaches out and grasps Yang's right hand between both of her own, fingers curly gently over the cool metal. "Hey, I'm not leaving, and if we ever see him again, I promise I'll be there."

And warmth seeps into her chest, strong and hot over her mark as she and Blake smile at each other.

"I'll protect you."

"What?" Yang's smile falls, the warmth in her chest extinguishing into nothing, and Blake looks momentarily startled.

"What?"

Yang yanks her hand out of Blake's grasp, and turns around. "Forget it, let's just head back."

"But what about-"

"We're fine." Yang doesn't look at Blake, eyes trained on the shed entrance. "We can hook that flatbed up to Bumblebee in the morning, should carry everyone."

Yang swallows heavily, hands curling into fists as her chest aches.

"Mission accomplished."

\--

As it turns out, their constant exhaustion on the farm was the result of an entire pack of Apathy lurking in the water tunnels underneath the property.

And all Yang can think about as they leave is that Blake almost died in those tunnels, and Yang had been unable to care at all.

But she does care, she cares so much, more than she ever thought she could care about someone.

Her chest clenches painfully at the thought, a dull ache in her soulmark that increases in intensity the longer the thought plagues her mind.

\--

Blake can't believe that Jaune, of all people, is the one who comes up with the idea to steal an Atlas airship.

Technically, it was Ruby who really set the whole 'steal Atlesian military property' plan into motion, but Jaune deserves at least a little credit for being the one to bring the idea up in the first place.

It's this plan that brings Blake to where she is now, the night before the heist, sitting in the Cotta-Arc's living room watching her partner take care of little Adrian. 

They were supposed to be going over their part of the mission, but then Saphron had asked if they could watch Adrian for a little bit while she and JNR cleaned up after dinner.

Right now, the young boy was sitting in Yang's lap, hands curled tightly into the front of her jacket, dozing off against her shoulder.

"Do you think tomorrow will go according to plan?" Yang asked quietly, shifting slightly besides her.

"I hope so." Blake whispered, leaning closer into Yang's side. "But this is a team RWBY plan we're talking about. Something is bound to go wrong one way or another."

Yang hummed, carefully adjusting Adrian in her arms. "Isn't this also technically Jaune's plan?"

"Yeah, but he can't tell me what to do."

"Fair enough."

\--

"You sure I shouldn't come with?"

Yang watched Blake step further into the clearing, their chosen drop off point for the heist. The communications tower loomed in the distance, high above the treeline, standing out starkly against the blue sky. 

"More intruders means we're more likely to be seen, besides stealth isn't exactly your um…" Blake trailed off as she turned around and saw the look on Yang's face, and held up her hands up defensively with a nervous smile. "I mean, you're great and I'll hurry back."

Yang shook her head fondly and smiled. "Go."

Blake smiles softly at her, before turning around and beginning her run over to the tower. "I'm heading in on foot, won't be long."

Yang's soulmark pricks uncomfortably as she watches Blake go, and she presses a hand over her mark, but it does little to make the feeling go away. 

'It was a warning.' She'll realize later when the dust finally settles and Blake's curled up in her arms. _'I should have gone with.'_

But for now, all she can do is wait and worry about her partner.

\--

_Silence._

Blake stares up at the communications tower, unnerved by the complete and utter lack of noise from the structure. 

No talking, no working, not even the sound of clanking metal as people walked around. 

There was nothing, no movement, no sound, _nothing._

Something wasn't right here.

She cautiously started to climb the tower, looking for any signs of life, anything to tell her that something horribly wrong hadn't happened there. 

But the world remains silent, and the place almost seems deserted. 

_Almost._

The higher up the climbs, the more signs of a struggle she sees, and the more she sees the more she feels the urge to climb back down and _get the hell out of there._

She freezes in place when she sees the _blood._

An Atlas military soldier, slumped against a power box, blood pooling out from underneath their hand, pressed loosely against a wound in their lower abdomen.

That's when she hears the footsteps, _his_ footsteps, and the sound of a gun being loaded and cocked.

"Hello, my darling.”

\--

"Yang, what's going on?"

Yang looks down at her scroll and back up at the tower, swallowing heavily. "I don't know…"

The radar was still up, Blake's scroll was listed as active and still had signal, but _Blake wasn't responding._

The prickling in her soulmark increases, sparking across her chest and intensifying with every second that passes. 

And then faintly, in the distance, she hears what sounds like a gunshot.

\--

Blake loses complete contact with the others when her scroll is broken, and she's alone on the communications tower fighting with _him._

"It's nice to finally have time to ourselves, don't you think?" Adam calls out to her, his hand tightly grasping Wilt's hilt. 

"Leave me alone!" She yells back, firing two quick shots at him, only for them to be deflected by his sword.

"But I've waited so long for you to be away from them."

Blake turns and vaults over the tower railing to slide down a cable line, but Adam uses Wilt to slice it, sending her falling onto a lower level of the tower.

She jumps to her feet and raises Gambol Shroud, their blades clashing together as they fight.

"Why did you have to come into my life and ruin everything?!"

"You stalked me across Anima! I don't want anything to do with your life."

She uses her shadow clones to climb higher up the tower, desperately trying to put distance between herself and Adam. 

Blake peers over the edge, searching the platforms below for him, but he had followed her up, hitting her in the side of the face with his sword.

Blake uses Gambol to swing over to him, and they grapple together for a few moments. She rolls away and jumps up another level, but then a hand is curling around her throat and pushing her against the tower railing. 

She grabs his wrist and kicks his ankle, sending them both falling over the railing and onto the forest floor below, landing with a heavy thud.

"Let go of the past, Adam." Blake says as she stands slowly, her grip tight on Gambol Shroud as she glares at the man in front of her. "Do it for yourself."

He stands up, and even with the blindfold he's wearing, Blake knows he's scowling at her. "Just forget it all? Is that what you did to me? You just threw our memories away!"

"Adam!"

Her grip tightens around Gambol as Adam grabs Wilt's hilt and prepares to unsheathe his blade."I let you go once already, Blake. I'm never making that mistake again."

And for the next couple of moments, all Blake can hear is the sound of their weapons clanging together as they clash.

Until she hears an explosion in the distance, and then she has to scramble to dodge an attack from Adam. 

She turns around and launches Gambol Shroud at a tree and uses it to propel herself away from Adam and further into the forest. 

"Can you do anything besides run?" He yells, chasing after her. Adam fires Wilt at her, and it hits Gambol right before she can use it to grapple onto another tree, and the momentary loss of momentum gives him the time he needs to catch up and slash at her.

She slips her arm out of her jacket at the last moment, and his sword cuts through the material instead. He falters slightly at the lack of resistance he feels from his weapon, and she quickly kicks him in the chest to create more distance between them.

She fires at him with Gambol, the shredded material of her jacket landing around her, and a few of her shots land before he can deflect them. He breathes heavily and charges at her again, and she runs off, finding herself on a naturally formed rock bridge next to a waterfall.

Adam follows and they clash, weapons clanging together, barely audible over the roar of the waterfall beside them. 

She evades his attacks using her semblance, and she catches Wilt with Gambol Shroud's sheath, yanking the sword out of his hands and away from him, leaving him with only Blush to defend himself.

That is, until he tightly grabs Blake's wrist and blocks Gambol with Blush, pushing harshly against her weapon with his own.

"I wouldn't have to be doing this if you just behaved!" He shouts at her, face twisted in fiery anger.

He grabs Wilt's hilt and slams it into the side of her head, knocking her to the ground several feet away, Gambol's sheathe clattering onto the ground somewhere around her. 

"But you're selfish!" He yells, hitting Blake again as she tries to stand up.

"You're a coward!" She holds Gambol up to protect herself, deflecting his attack and rolling backwards.

"You're delusional." She spits, glaring up at him, and he lifts his sword, tip pointing towards the scar on her left hip, and she remembers.

She remembers the pain, the overwhelming feeling of loss and agony, how her entire soul snapped and shattered into pieces, how it had felt like the entire world had ended within a matter of seconds.

The pain she had felt after losing her soulmark had been unbearable, and she sure as hell wasn't about to see if the old spot was still tethered to her mark.

He rears back, and she raises Gambol Shroud again, only to hear the heart stopping _snap_ of her weapon being broken in half.

She's defenseless, no weapon to protect herself, nothing standing between her and the man who had hurt her in so many ways.

In the distance, she hears a faint rumbling.

Adam reaches up and removes the blindfold from across his eyes, revealing the horrific brand across his eye, the mark that used to reside there practically invisible amongst the grotesque scar tissue.

"People hurt me long before we met. All sorts of people, in all sorts of ways, but no one hurt me quite like you." He glared at her, grip tightening around his sword. "You didn't leave scars. You just left me alone."

The rumbling noise in the distance grows louder, and when an ear flicks back to listen further, she realizes just what the sound is, and _who_ it belongs to.

She's heard that rumble before, and she'd be a fool not to recognize it after all this time. 

"So tell me Blake," Adam says, shifting his grip on Wilt. "How does it feel to be alone?"

He lifts his sword up and strikes downward into her scar, but she activates her semblance, leaving a shadow clone behind to take the blow. 

It hurts, even with her semblance, _it still hurts,_ sharp pain erupting in her hip as she grabs Gambol's sheath, allowing herself a small moment to rub at the scar. 

"I'm not alone."

Yang appears from overhead and jumps off of her bike, kicking out and sending her bike crashing into Adam and knocking him to the grade. 

Bumblebee falls off the cliff and into the river below as Yang lands next to Blake, seeming to not at all be bothered by the loss of her beloved motorcycle.

Adam looked up and glared at Yang. "You."

Yang fires a shot at him with Ember Celica, and Blake falls to the ground, clutching at her hip as the pain there slowly begins to fade.

"It's okay, catch your breath for a second." Yang said to her gently, fists clenched as she turned to face Adam. "I can hold him off."

"She's right, Blake. It's okay." Adam says as he stands, swinging his sword. "We have unfinished business."

They stare at each other for a long moment, and then Adam rushes forward, Yang racing to meet him, and they start to fight as Blake watches, breathing heavily as the pain in her hip eased.

Yang manages to knock Adam back a couple of feet, firing at him only for her shots to be blocked and absorbed by his sword. 

He uses his semblance to attack her, and Yang blocks it with her arm, sliding back towards Blake.

"His semblance is like yours!" Blake calls out to Yang. "He absorbs energy through his sword, stores it up, and then sends it back when he's ready."

"He gets to dish out damage without having to feel it?" Yang glanced over at her and shifted her fighting stance with a grunt. "That's just cheap."

Yang dodges his next couple of attacks and manages to avoid hitting his sword, landing smaller hits on him before her fist suddenly hits Wilt, and Adam knocks her back beside Blake.

Blake looks over at Yang, and their eyes meet, and the pain in Blake's hip instantly evaporates into nothing. 

But then Adam growls and Blake looks over to see him preparing to use his semblance, and the fall of Beacon flashes quickly before her eyes. "Yang!"

Yang quickly raises her right arm, and she slides back to the edge of the cliff from the strength of his attack as Blake quickly stands up.

There are large tears in the metal of Yang's right arm as she drops it and glares at Adam. "Leave. Us. Alone."

Yang moves away from the cliff edge to stand beside Blake. "This is your last chance."

Adam set a hand on his sword's hilt, and then he scoffs when he notices how violently Yang's left hand is trembling, shaking his head. "Do you really believe that? Or are you just trying to scare me away so you won't have to die trying to protect her?"

Yang steps forward in a fighting stance, but Blake reaches out and grabs her shaking hand, warm comfort seeping into her veins as her soulmark ignited into a gentle burn. "She's not protecting me, Adam."

Blake turns briefly to look into Yang's eyes, sees the calming fire burning deep within them, and grips her hand tighter. "And I'm not protecting her."

_"We're protecting each other."_

\--

Blake's hand was strong and warm in hers, spiking a heat in Yang's soulmark that she hadn't felt in a long time. 

A sweet and gentle warmth over her chest, soothing her soul and easing her anxiety, a strong sense of calm washing over her despite the man standing in front of them.

"You knew you couldn't win two-on-one at Haven." Adam taunts, glaring at Blake. "What makes you so sure you can win now?"

"I don't have a choice. I have people who actually care about me," Blake squeezes her hand tightly, sending heat spiking through her arm. "And I promised I'd never leave them again, so I'm not dying now."

Yang smiles softly at Blake, giving her hand a gentle squeeze in return. Adam turns his head to look at her, and she glares at him.

"You know, she made a promise to me once, that she'd always be at my side." Adam chuckled humorlessly, shaking his head. "Look how well she's kept it."

"Did she make that promise to you, or to the person you were pretending to be?"

Yang's words are met by silence, and he ignores her completely, looking back at Blake with a scowl. "So I just wasn't good enough for you?"

"You know, it's so much more than that."

"I know you've made your choice." His scowl deepens, fingers tightening around his sword as he prepares to attack. "And I've made mine."

Yang slips her hand out of Blake's, squaring her shoulders and bringing her hands up, and then Blake and her are rushing forward to combat their assailant.

Blake grabs the bottom half of Gambol Shroud and throws it at Adam, but he deflects it back towards her with Wilt. Yang propels herself forward and catches Gambol's ribbon, planting her feet and swinging Blake in a move reminiscent of their old team attack from Beacon.

Gambol's sheath clashes with Adam's sword, but Adam knocks Blake back and over the cliffside and towards the river below.

"Blake!" Yang stills, waiting for the sound of Blake falling into the river, but it never comes. 

_'She's okay.'_ Her soul whispers in her ear, soulmark warm on her chest. _'Keep fighting, for her.'_

There's nothing I wouldn't do for her.

Yang turned away from the cliffside and glared at Adam, anger simmering her veins, her semblance slowly building deep within her. 

"Moment of truth, Yang. Do you think you're faster than you were at Beacon?"

She falters, hands lowering with a tremble as Adam chuckles and smiles at her. 

"Me neither."

He unsheathes his sword and swings at her, but Yang dodges and rolls away, avoiding his slashes all the while slowly building up her semblance. 

He knocks her to the ground, and she rolls away from him, glancing to the side to see Blake slowly climbing up the cliff. 

"Your aura's bound to be running low." Adam calls out to her, not noticing Blake making her way back towards them. 

Yang stands and dodges more of Adam's attacks, letting some of them land to build her semblance without fighting back. 

"Hit me already!" Adam yells, swinging at her again. 

"What does she even see in you?!" Adam throws Wilt at her as it spins, and she tries to block it but gets knocked to the ground, aura weakening but semblance building.

"You're just a coward like her!"

Adam attacks her with his semblance, creating a large cloud of dust, and at the same moment, Yang uses her own, power surge through her body as Adam rushes forward and swings his sword down upon her.

The sound of metal clanging together reaches her ears as she reaches up and grabs his sword with her right hand, hair burning bright and eyes a fiery red. "Gotcha."

She rears her left arm back and punches him hard in the stomach, yanking with her other hand to rip his sword out of his hand as he flies backwards and hits the ground, aura flickering and shattering around him. 

He stands slowly, hand hovering over his sword's sheathe, eyes darting up to her when his hand grabs thin air. 

"I may not be faster," Yang says, breathing heavily as her own aura depletes and breaks. "But I'm smarter."

She turns and throws his sword over the edge of the cliff, and he runs to catch it, watching it fall into the river below.

And then suddenly Blake appears, punching Adam in the jaw as she jumps back up onto the bridge. Adam stumbled backwards, feet stepping over the broken halves of Gambol Shroud with a clanging sound, and then her vision tunnels.

Blake springs forward at the same moment Adam does, hand outstretched towards her weapon. 

_Protect her._

Yang races over, heart threatening to burst out of her chest as the fingers of her right hand curled around Gambol's broken blade.

_Protect her._

She doesn't know that Blake had beat Adam to Gambol until she sees the other severed half poking out of his back, next to her own piece of the now bloodied blade.

"Oh…"

Yang yanks Gambol Shroud out of his back, breathing heavily as it dawned upon her what had just happened. 

Adam stumbled forward, falling to his knees at the edge of the cliff, before slumping over and plunging down into the river below.

Adam Taurus was dead.

Suddenly, Blake falls to her knees and drops her half of Gambol with a loud clang, shoulders shaking as she sobs. 

Yang drops her piece and rushes over to Blake, sliding on her knees and pulling the shorter woman into a tight hug.

"I'm not going to break my promise." Blake sobs, hands grasping the back of her jacket tightly. "I swear."

Yang gently grabbed Blake by the shoulders and guided her back so she could press their foreheads together.

"I know you won't."

\--

"I'm sorry…" Blake whispers to her as they trek through the forest on their way back to the others, rubbing at her eyes and shivering.

"For what?"

"For everything." Blake shifts to walk closer to her side, rubbing her arms as a particularly chilly breeze blew past them. "For bringing you into this, for him hurting you, for-"

"Blake…" Yang stops, reaching out and gently grabbing Blake's hand. "None of this is your fault, nothing he did has ever been your fault."

"But-"

"This isn't on you." She squeezes Blake's hand, a jolt of warmth erupting in her soulmark. Blake swallowed heavily, and opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by a loud explosion in the distance.

They shared a look before taking off running in the direction of the explosion.

They could talk about this later, but right now, their team needed them.

And they needed them now.

\--

Everything else that happens afterwards happens too fast for anyone to process.

Cordovin, the Grimm, the Leviathan, Ruby's silver eyes, leaving Argus.

It was a lot, and Yang doesn't get a moment to relax until they're finally, safely on their way to Atlas.

Blake was curled up against her side, slowly drifting asleep against her shoulder, their hands tightly clasped together in between them.

Blake mumbled something incoherently, cuddling closer to her and sighing contently. 

"You two seem awfully close." Weiss said suddenly from Blake's other side with a smirk.

"Shut up."

"You're not denying it."

Yang groaned quietly, rubbing her face with her free hand. "Goddamnit Weiss…"

"You two are good for each other." Weiss said quietly, smiling. "I'm happy that you have each other."

Blake shifted again, and the gentle warmth in Yang's soulmark increased briefly before simmering down again.

"Hey Weiss?"

"Yes?"

"Does your soulmark ever feel… warm?"

"It was when I met Ilia, but I haven't felt anything since we left for Argus." Weiss said, fiddling her hands together in her lap. "Does… does your mark ever feel like that?"

Yang glanced nervously around the airship, but none of the others seemed to be paying them any attention, and Blake was fast asleep against her shoulder. There was no need to worry about anyone overhearing.

"Yeah…" She whispered, looking down at Blake and then up at Weiss. "It does a lot, actually."

Weiss glanced between her and Blake. "Are you two…"

"I don't know." Yang said honestly, resisting the urge to press her fingers over her mark. "I just… I don't know."

"Whatever it is, I hope it works out. You two deserve a little happiness."

Yang nodded, looking down at Blake with a small smile. 

_Gods, she loved her._

"Thanks Weiss, for everything."

"I'm here for you guys. You're my family."

"The great Weiss Schnee? Admitting that she likes us? I never thought I'd see the day."

"Shut up before I take it all back."

"Love you too, Weiss."

\--

The next couple of hours after that are a blur.

Their arrival in Atlas is quickly followed by a Grimm attack, and in the midst of it, someone they never thought they would see again suddenly appears. 

_Penny Polendina._

Blake turned to look at Ruby, who out of everyone who had known Penny back at Beacon, had been the closest to her. Ruby was standing completely still, staring up at the sky in awe, like she couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing.

“Penny…”

Blake couldn’t help but smile when Penny tackled Ruby in a tight hug, sending them both falling to the ground in a heap of limbs and bright, but hesitant smiles. 

Penny sadly has to leave soon after, and Ruby's smile drops for a small moment before she quickly covers it up with her usual optimism. 

Ruby starts to rub at her left forearm shortly after, but Blake doesn’t have time to ponder this, because minutes later, they are all being placed under arrest by the Atlesian government. 

\--

General Ironwood had a really strange way of welcoming people to Atlas, mostly because 'welcoming' someone to the kingdom meant arresting them, even if it was only temporary.

Yang's absolutely exhausted by the time team RWBY arrives in their new dorm, and the only thing stopping her from collapsing onto the nearest bed is Blake's steady presence beside her.

Weiss has to yank on the hood of Ruby's cloak to stop her from climbing onto the furthest top bunk in her huntress gear. "Get away from the beds. You're filthy."

"But Weiss-"

"No," Weiss tugs harder on her cape. "Go take a shower and get changed. Then you can go to bed."

Ruby groaned and grabbed one of the carefully folded bundles of clothes they were provided off of a desk and disappeared into the bathroom.

They go in team order to decide who gets the bathroom next, and by the time Yang finally gets finished showering and changing, the rest of her team is in bed and asleep, and she barely has the energy to stumble over to her and Blake's bunk and climb up to her bed.

She pulls herself up onto her bed with her arm (she had removed her prosthetic earlier and given it away to be upgraded), settling against the mattress and pillow with a sigh as she finally gets to relax and rest.

But no matter how hard she tries, she can't sleep.

Every time she closes her eyes, she sees _him,_ sees a broken blade plunged deep into his body, sees him stumble to the cliffedge and fall over the side, sees the red staining the metal in her hand.

And what feels like hours later, she feels a gentle tap against the bottom of her bunk, and a quiet voice calling out to her.

"Yang? Are you awake?"

_Blake._

Yang turned and looked over the edge of her bed, at the bright eyes staring up at her. "Yeah… I can't sleep..."

"Me neither…"

"Do…" Yang hesitated for a brief moment. "Do you wanna come up?"

She heard a shifting underneath her, and then Blake was peering up over the side of her bed and pulling herself up. 

Blake curled up on the bed beside her, and Yang reached out and shyly grabbed her hand. 

Blake squeezed her hand gently and shifted closer, pressing their foreheads together and hesitantly draping an arm around her waist. "Is this okay?"

Yang nodded, and Blake tightened her hold around her, pressing them impossibly closer together. 

And there, being held in the arms of her beloved partner and closest friend, her soulmark comfortably warm, Yang finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

\--

Blake cuts her hair a few days later. 

She's standing in front of a mirror, fiddling with the ends of her hair, feeling the weight of it resting heavily against her body. 

The idea comes to her all of a sudden, and she's thought about it before, cutting her hair, but never this strongly.

She wants to cut her hair, so she does.

She lifts up the newly repaired Gambol Shroud, let's it's new golden addition shine in the light for a brief moment, and then the weight of her hair falls off of her shoulders and onto the floor.

\--

"I really like your hair." Yang whispers to her that night while they're in bed, idly playing with the loose black strands.

"I know Yang," Blake said with a chuckle. "That's the eighth time you've said that today."

"And I'll keep saying it." Yang's hand left her hair and cupped her cheek to press their foreheads together. "I love your hair."

"It's good." Blake teased, quoting something Yang had said earlier that day. "Great even."

Yang groaned and pulled away from Blake. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Not in a million years, sweetheart."

\--

A couple of days later when Blake is alone in the dorm room, Ruby bursts in clutching her left arm and freezes at the sight of her.

"Ruby?"

"Hey Blake." Ruby says hesitantly, hiding her left arm behind her back and waving awkwardly with her right. 

"Are you...okay?"

"Yep!" Ruby replies quickly, a little too quickly for her liking. "I'm perfectly fine! Nothing to see here!"

"Ruby," Blake sits up and closes her book, setting it down in her lap. "You know you can talk to me if anything is wrong, right?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment before tentatively sitting down on the bed next to Blake, fiddling with her hands nervously in her lap.

"Do… do you remember that weird mark that was on my arm back at Beacon?" Ruby asked her, staring down at the floor.

"Yeah," Blake shifted closer to her leader. "You said it was just a bruise or something like that."

"But you knew that wasn't it, right?"

Blake nods, and Ruby starts to fiddle with her left sleeve, before she tugs it up and reveals her forearm, and the mark it now bears.

A nut and bolt surrounded by roses, bright and vibrant in the middle of her forearm.

"...Penny has it too." Ruby whispered, rubbing at the mark. "I saw it this morning… I never thought that I'd have a soulmark, so I guess it's all just a little overwhelming right now."

"It can be a little overwhelming in the beginning." Blake said with a smile, remembering the first time her soulmark erupted in warmth. 

"You've already met your soulmate?"

Blake was quiet for a long moment. All signs pointed to yes, that she had indeed met her soulmate, but then a voice in the back of her head would sow seeds of doubt in her mind. 

Marks were private and rarely shown to others, and Blake can count on one hand the amount of different marks she'd seen in her life.

Yang's mark was not on that list. 

"I don't know," Blake admits, fighting the urge to touch her mark. "I think I know who it is, but I'm not sure…"

Blake's ear suddenly flicked in the direction of the door as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and Ruby hugged her with a quick thank you and stood up from the bed.

Yang and Weiss entered the room moments later, and Blake smiled at the warmth that blossomed in her chest at the sight of her partner. 

Soulmarks were something they had never talked about before, and it was starting to become clear that they needed to do.

\--

The thing that finally sparks the conversation between, is the sight of one of their marks.

It happens after Blake had just gotten the shower, wearing only sweatpants and a sports bra, her mark strikingly obvious on her chest.

And Yang freezes at the sight of it, because she's seen that mark before, she knows that mark.

Because it's the exact same mark that resides on her very own skin. 

A panther and a dragon, peacefully curled up together directly over her heart. 

Her mark, _their mark._

She should have realized, should have put all of the signs together a long time ago, should have known that there was something between them the moment they met. 

Blake was her soulmate.

Yang's pulled out of her thoughts by Ruby tapping her arm, staring up at her curiously while Weiss engaged in conversation with Blake.

"I thought your mark was on your hip?" 

Blake lifted her hand and pressed it against the mark on her chest, and Yang felt a sudden jolt of warmth rush through her. 

"It was." Blake said, completely oblivious to the rest of her team behind her. "But it kind of moved, after everything that happened at Beacon…"

Yang's heart clenched tightly at the brief reference to the fall, at the reminder that both she and Blake lost something that night.

They lost their team, they lost their marks, _they lost each other._

Ruby glances between her and Blake, sees the look on her face and whispers to her so the others can't hear. "Isn't that your mark?"

Ruby had seen her mark before, they were sisters afterall, and Yang nods, brushing her fingers over her chest, directly over her heart, where she knew her mark was.

Ruby glanced between her and Blake again, before calling out to Weiss. "Hey Weiss, do you want to come training with me?"

Ruby whispers a quick good luck to Yang before she leaves with Weiss, and the ex-heiress pats Blake on the shoulder and nods at Yang, and then she's left alone with her partner. 

No, not her partner. 

_Her soulmate._

\--

When Blake turns around, the first thing she notices is that Yang is staring at her. 

The second thing she notices, is that Yang is staring at her mark, her own fingers pressed against her chest.

"Yang?"

Yang is quiet as she swings her legs over the side of her bed and slips down from their bunk. 

"It's you…" Yang whispers, breathless, like she can't believe what's she's seeing with her own two eyes. 

"What do you mean?" 

"I…" Yang starts, and then stops, hesitantly grabbing the hem of her shirt and yanking it over her head and dropping it onto the floor, and then Blake understands. 

There, in the center of Yang's chest, was a soulmark, the exact same one that was on Blake's own body.

They were soulmates.

Deep down, she always knew, had known the moment they met but had been too blind to realize it.

Blake cautiously reaches out, and when Yang doesn't move to stop her, she presses her fingers against Yang's chest.

Warmth. 

That's all she can process when they touch, a soft and gentle warmth that consumes her body and fills her soul with comfortable heat.

Yang reaches up and squeezes her hand, smile growing wider and wider by the second. 

"Of course it's you." Blake whispers, pressing their foreheads together. "It's always been you."

"Is that okay?" Yang's hands brushed against her sides, curling around her waist to guide their bodies closer. "Are you okay with it being me?"

"Of course." Blake said instantly, rubbing at Yang's mark, tracing the beautiful golden dragon with a gentle finger. "I couldn't imagine it being anyone else."

"Me neither." Yang's arms tightened slightly around her, fingers tracing patterns into the bare skin of her back. "I can't believe it took us this long to figure it out."

"It is kind of obvious, isn't it?" Blake says with a little laugh, smiling fondly at the woman in front of her. "I mean, a panther and a dragon? Who else could it have been besides you?"

Yang lifts a hand and brushes her fingers against Blake's mark, sending another jolt of warmth racing through them. "You're perfect."

"I love you." Blake whispers, fingers stilling against Yang's chest. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." Yang's hand shifts to cup her cheek as they lean closer together. "More than I've ever loved anyone."

Their first kiss is sweet and gentle, and when they pull away, Yang's smile is the biggest Blake's ever seen it. 

"What do we do now?" Yang asks her, and Blake gives her a quick peck on the lips.

"I think I owe you a date or two for starters." Blake says with a smile, and Yang kisses her again.

"I think that can be arranged."

Almost everyone in the world had a soulmate, and for every soulmate bond, there was a shared mark. 

For Blake and Yang, their bond and their marks were proof of the challenges they had faced and how far they had come together. 

Their bond, the very essence of their joined souls, manifesting in a mark on their bodies, solidified by their promise to each other.

A brave and strong panther, a bright and fiery dragon, curled up together in a symbol of perfect balance and harmony.

Their marks had found a home over their hearts, but they had also found themselves a home, in each other.

Their two souls, perfectly intertwined together in harmony.

And they wouldn't have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter : JacksonCalico  
> Tumblr : calicojackson576


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